Beyond Google Glass: Creating next generation augmented reality

Todd Humphreys and his students at the University of Texas in Austin are tired of waiting for augmented reality that meets the promise of the technology we've been hearing about and seeing in science fiction for years now. So they set out to build it themselves, and presented a very rough prototype for the first time at the South By Southwest Interactive Festival (SXSW) in Austin on Friday.

The prototype isn't nearly as lightweight or wearable as Google's Glass, the augmented reality spectacles that have received lots of buzz lately over their reported consumer release planned for later this year. Instead, it's about the size of a desktop computer with a big, round antenna attached to the top of the box.

But as Humphreys told the SXSW crowd, it's not meant to be an elegantly designed consumer product, but rather a proof of concept for how good augmented reality could (and should) be.

"Google Glass is not the immersive experience I'm looking for," Humphreys told the audience in a conference room of Austin's downtown Omni Hotel.

He then laid out what he calls an augmented reality "Bill of Rights," outlining what he sees as the real promise of AR, which includes a "true three-dimensional immersive experience" with virtual elements that look and behave as if real, creating a "convincing illusion." Further, Humphreys wants to see absolute location registration (geolocation) accurate down to the centimeter, or even millimeter, no matter where a person is on the globe, outdoors and indoors.

Humphreys' final demand for this next generation of augmented reality – it should be available soon; no waiting another decade for the experience Arnold Schwarzenegger and the Terminator series introduced us to in the last century.

AR Challenges

The assistant professor of engineering did acknowledge the loftiness of his AR ambitions and said he was willing to make a few concessions, namely that we may have to settle for a handheld AR experience in the short term rather than a totally immersive, wearable one. This is a point where he and his younger students are actually at odds – Humphreys believes it will be difficult for Google Glass and other "somewhat dorky hardware" to become socially acceptable, but his students disagree.

Humphreys also concedes that the suite of sensors in contemporary devices may be inadequate for achieving what he's laid out in his AR Bill of Rights.

There are, of course, some other glaring obstacles to achieving Humphreys' vision for modern augmented reality, including that it would require covering every inch of the earth from multiple angles with something like Google's Street View car or backpack setup. Then there's also the bandwidth demands and latency challenges for a system that would basically require synchronous up and down streaming of 3D video.

Humphreys said that his team's new prototype effectively takes a big step towards working around these issues and delivering on the promise of AR.

Another way

The key to this new approach is the fusion of two readily available technologies: carrier-phase differential GPS (CDGPS) and an inertial measurement unit (IMU), like those in smartphones that house a device's accelerometer and gyroscope.

The IMU helps place and track objects in their local environment and, fusing that data with CDGPS (which is accurate down to the centimeter), "scales and anchors [that] reference frame globally," Humpreys explained.

The result is a technique that eliminates the need to map the whole world in advance by essentially mapping just the local area on the fly (with an IMU and camera) and then placing that reference frame into a global context (via CDGPS).

Humphreys' team says that at present IMUs in our phones and tablets are not quite precise enough to get the job done and their antennas don't output the right information to pickup CDGPS. In fact, current antenna limitations present the greatest stumbling blocks in contemporary hardware, which is why the prototype includes such a relatively large and goofy antenna.

When it comes to processor power, Humphreys said that current hardware has sufficient power, but would likely be a major drain on batteries.

"Perhaps this is not the way AR will finally work out," conceded Humphreys. "But we can imagine it tethered to the back of an iPad."

I can see things like AR being incredibly useful for surgeons, engineers, architects, designers, gamers, etc. However, I really don't want to see the societal impact that generalized use of things like Google Glass would have. Talking with a person whose attention is already divided between you and their cellphone is irritating and distracting enough. Trying to carry on a conversation with someone who may or may not be looking crap up on their AR display would be the last straw.

Dave MacLachlan 10th March, 2013 @ 10:38 am PDT

Use the augmented reality glasses when driving sounds safe. Someone hacks your glasses and puts an image of an eminent head on collision in front of your car.

Robert DuBois 10th March, 2013 @ 01:58 pm PDT

Last thing on google glass I want is adds.

Harry HJ Neethling 11th March, 2013 @ 03:00 am PDT

This article and more to the point, Todd Humphreys, are making the wrong compassion between his device and Google Glass, when it seems to me it should be a comparison between his device and the Oculus Rift—which it would seem is further alone and mounts quite comfortably (so I read) right on the user's face.

yrag 11th March, 2013 @ 03:20 am PDT

I want an AR starmap app for Android that takes video input from the camera and tags the stars and other things with their names, catalog numbers etc.

Gregg Eshelman 11th March, 2013 @ 02:37 pm PDT

Sorry to get on a bit of a tangent here but since Google glass was mentioned I feel its not out of order to mention.

Imagine once the glass is on sale to the general public. You wear them, you walk around. More people start to wear them and they then start to take off and sell in greater numbers. Do you think Google will have that product out in the marketplace without showing ads all over the screen?

Imagine walking around and everywhere you go you get bombarded with advertising, flashing right in front of your eyes everywhere you go - advertising will then be shown not just on your computer / tablet/ smartphone but right in front of your eyes everywhere you go.

Tommo 12th March, 2013 @ 05:11 am PDT

Ads are likely to be Google Glass's raison d'etre since Google Now will know your routine and steer you towards coffee shops, restaurants and so on. It may be good for the consumer with offers being made on the hoof, so to speak.

Dan Barkley 12th March, 2013 @ 05:51 am PDT

Perhaps this guy is innocently unaware, or maybe he's intentionally not mentioning it, but Google has already patented and is working on a conventional-sized, two-eye stereoscopic version of Google Glass currently discussed as Google Glasses.